Warning- If you have an interest in marine biology you may be disappointed with this blog post. It isn’t about sea urchins; it’s about making things.
Have you ever wanted to make a set of fabric sea urchins? I hadn’t either. But then one day at my local quilt shop I saw a twelve pointed, three dimensional stuffed object with a pattern that said, “Make, not catch, your own urchin.” I immediately bought the pattern, in spite of the bad grammar. The only materials required were fabric & stuffing, and it was made with a sewing machine, needle & thread- no fabric glue. Hooray! I hate glue.
It was impossible to tell how these urchins were put together, but I assumed I would be able to figure it out. I was born with the DIY gene. My sister, Ellen, is also afflicted and we grew up together making doll clothes, paper mache, origami, creepy crawlers, yarn pom poms, and tons of other stuff. As the years went by sewing became my favorite hobby. In the last 50+ years I have sewn prom dresses, winter coats, maternity & children’s clothes, tote bags, stuffed animals, lined curtains, ruffled pillow shams and fancy quilts.
Naturally I was thrilled to find something new to make with my sewing machine, but I tossed the new patten into my box of future projects that may or may not ever come to fruition. Then I had an inspiration. My niece, Marissa, would be turning sixteen in March; wouldn’t she love a set of hand-made fabric sea urchins? She could use them as pin cushions or simply simply display them as “objets d’art.” Perhaps she would rather have a shiny new car for her birthday; unfortunately that was out of my budget. So I purchased some snappy modern fabric and got to work on the sea urchins.
Three sizes were given, and I had decided to make one of each size, starting with the medium. The first step was to cut twelve circles out of fabric. Fold each circle in half, machine sew down the center, and invert one half over the other to form twelve double-layer fabric cones. Then use upholstery thread and a needle to gather the edges of each cone; stuff it firmly and stitch it closed. So far so good.
Next came the assembly phase, which was a bit more challenging. This step was like the proverbial “nailing jello to the wall” if you first had to form the jello into the shape of a salamander and spray paint it. In other words it was easier said than done. I would have seriously considered giving up except that I had seen one made up by Mary Beth of the aforementioned LQS and, damn it, if another woman can do it then I can too. I did have to enlist my husband’s assistance to hold the “tentacles” together as I tied surgeon’s knots. Success! The set was completed and shipped off to California in time. Then I decided to make two more for myself.
[The sea urchin pattern is by La Todera.]
